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 And circumstance, that unspiritual god,
 And miscreator, makes and helps along
  Our coming evils, with a critch-like read more 
 And circumstance, that unspiritual god,
 And miscreator, makes and helps along
  Our coming evils, with a critch-like rod,
   Whose touch turns hope to dust--the dust we all have trod. 
 Epicureans, that ascribed the origin and frame of the world not 
to the power of God, but to the read more 
 Epicureans, that ascribed the origin and frame of the world not 
to the power of God, but to the fortuitous concourse of atoms. 
 The massive gates of circumstance
 Are turned upon the smallest hinge,
  And thus some seeming pettiest chance
read more 
 The massive gates of circumstance
 Are turned upon the smallest hinge,
  And thus some seeming pettiest chance
   Oft gives our life its after-tinge.
    The trifles of our daily lives,
     The common things, scarce worth recall,
      Whereof no visible trace survives,
       These are the mainsprings after all. 
 Men's plans should be regulated by the circumstances, not 
circumstances by the plans.
 [Lat., Consilia res magis dant read more 
 Men's plans should be regulated by the circumstances, not 
circumstances by the plans.
 [Lat., Consilia res magis dant hominibus quam homines rebus.] 
 Men are the sport of circumstances, when
 The circumstances seem the sport of men.  
 Men are the sport of circumstances, when
 The circumstances seem the sport of men. 
 And grasps the skirts of happy chance,
 And breasts the blows of circumstance.  
 And grasps the skirts of happy chance,
 And breasts the blows of circumstance. 
Circumstances beyond my individual control.
Circumstances beyond my individual control.
 And I endeavour to subdue circumstances to myself, and not myself 
to circumstances.
 [Lat., Et mihi res, non read more 
 And I endeavour to subdue circumstances to myself, and not myself 
to circumstances.
 [Lat., Et mihi res, non me rebus, subjungere conor.] 
Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own.
Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own.